10 DIY Application Development Platforms

Need an application to help you do a specific task more efficiently? Why not create it yourself?
That is the thinking behind a growing phenomenon called "citizen development." Gartner defines a citizen developer as anyone outside the IT department that creates new business applications for consumption by themselves or others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by the corporate IT department.
Why are citizen development and DIY apps becoming more popular? "The biggest issue is business units getting tired of waiting for IT departments," explains Gartner research director Mark Driver. "Employees have an intimate knowledge of the subject matter, and they can throw something together very quickly - in six days rather than six months."
Gartner estimates that in 2010 just 20 percent of large enterprises had established citizen developer policies, but by 2020 this will grow to 70 percent.
Since many citizen development tools are essentially "no code" tools designed for people without specific development skills to make DIY apps, most users can work productively with them. (An Intuit survey found that while 97 percent of citizen developers have traditional word processing and spreadsheet/formula skills, only 36 percent have front end Web interface skills and just 8 percent have traditional coding skills in languages like Java, .NET, C++ or Ruby.)
Here are 10 citizen development platforms worth looking at:

10 DIY Application Development Platforms

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Intuit QuickBase

Intuit QuickBase runs in the cloud and enables you to build apps from scratch with no need for coding knowledge or IT assistance. You can configure forms, fields, tables, reports, dashboards and other building blocks to match your business processes.
Data can be brought in to QuickBase apps by importing spreadsheets and CSV files, or synced with popular cloud applications.

Pricing starts at $15 per user per month for a minimum of 10 users.

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ServiceNow

ServiceNow 's CreateNow Development Suite provides you with a comprehensive set of browser-based tools to manage the development of your app from creation to deployment. A completed application can be deployed to a single department or your entire enterprise with the click of a button.

The suite offers templates for you to use to make service management applications for generic services: basic ones such as offering request management and tracking; intermediate ones offering support for workflow-based approvals and auto-assignment; and advanced services that are fully configurable and task based, with support for parts requirements, travel tracking and advanced auto-assignment. App configuration is carried out by clicking elements on a Web interface.

Pricing is available upon request.

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TrackVia

TrackVia is a "no code" platform that promises you the ability to build departmental and cross-departmental apps in minutes, by dragging and dropping spreadsheets to create work management applications.

You can use the platform to create native mobile apps for iOS and Android devices as well as desktop applications. You can then link these to hundreds of other apps and software systems including Gmail, QuickBooks, Microsoft Exchange and Box with API and Zapier integration. Pricing is available upon request.

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Appian

Appian's platform is designed to let you make tailored business apps and includes a mobile platform to help you build and deploy natively mobile apps.

The platform has embedded process management to help you build process and task orchestration applications, and you can pull complete information records from multiple systems. The platform gives you dynamic user interfaces so that your apps should work with Web browsers or mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Pricing is available upon request.

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Appery.io

Appery.io's cloud-based rapid development environment is designed to help you build mobile and responsive apps. The platform supports iOS, Android and Windows Phone mobile apps, and you can also use it to create hybrid apps that behave like native apps but use common APIS that run across these three mobile operating systems. It also allows you to create Web apps that run on all devices and screen sizes.

To build an app, you drag and drop components to build a user interface for pre-installed or custom app templates, then bind services to the user interface with a drag-and-drop Visual Data Mapping Editor.

If you have some coding skills, you can even write custom JavaScript to be applied during mapping. Pricing is available upon request.

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Telerik ScreenBuilder

Telerik ScreenBuilder. Telerik believes that while business users don't know how to write code, they do understand the "business" and their own backend ERP systems.

By providing pre-defined templates and guiding you through the best practices for user interface - from theme selection to layouts - and enabling you to connect to the backend system via data connectors (REST/ODATA and the like), ScreenBuilder produces a pre-built application with auto-generated code.

You can choose whether to generate hybrid or native code for your app. Pricing is available upon request.

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Mendix

Mendix's application development platform uses visual models to abstract away from technical details so that you can focus on rapid application development and delivery.

The Web and mobile application platform uses model-driven development, enterprise application integration and continuous deployment capabilities so that you should be able to develop a useful application in days, not months, the company claims. Pricing is available upon request.

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Infinite Monkeys

Infinite Monkeys allows you to create iOS, Android and HTML5 apps "in about 20 minutes" using the drag-and-drop interface of the company's online App Builder. The company claims that over a million apps have been built in this way, bringing in resources from cloud services such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Pricing: $12 per year (or $2 per month) for a native Android app and mobile website, $108 per year or $12 per month for native Android and iPhone apps and mobile website, or $39 per month for unlimited apps and access to app source code.

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Salesforce Lightning

Salesforce Lightning. Built on the Salesforce1 Platform, Lightning Experience combines the Lightning Design System, Lightning App Builder and Lightning Components to let you create modern enterprise apps for desktop and mobile devices - even if you are a non-programmer or are new to application development.

You build apps visually with Lightning App Builder and Lightning Components, and can draw on tools and best practices from the Lightning Design System. Pricing is available upon request.

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Knack

Knack is a tool that lets you build simple DIY apps apps that use online databases which are populated with data you bring in from your servers.

You can import data from spreadsheets or enter it manually, and once in the cloud you can edit it there for quick updates. Users can log in and access their own database records, making Knack suitable for building many types of complex applications.

Pricing starts at $39 per month for three apps, 20,000 records and 2GB storage. The Pro plan allows eight apps and 50,000 records with 10GB storage for $79 per month, while the Corporate plan allows 25 apps and 125,000 records with 50GB storage for $179 per month.